A growing number of researchers, including Harvard Forest collaborator Andrew Richardson, are using automated digital cameras to study seasonal change in the forest canopy. As climate warms, the timing of leaf emergence in the spring and leaf-drop in autumn are in rapid flux, increasing scientists' need to precisely pinpoint and follow these seasonal changes.

A groundbreaking study released today by the Harvard Forest and the Smithsonian Institution reveals that, if left unchecked, recent trends in the loss of forests to development will undermine significant land conservation gains in Massachusetts, jeopardize water quality, and limit the natural landscape's ability to protect against climate change.

Note: applications closed Feb. 7, 2014. Applications are now being accepted for the 2014 Harvard Forest Summer Research Program, an opportunity for college and university students across the U.S. to participate in 11 weeks (May 26-August 8, 2014﻿) of paid, independent research with mentors from Harvard and other leading institutions.

Jonathan Thompson has joined the Harvard Forest staff as a new Senior Ecologist. He comes to us from the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute, where he was a Research Scientist and Landscape Ecologist. Before joining the Smithsonian in 2009, Thompson ﻿spent two years as a Bullard Fellow and Research Associate here at Harvard Forest.

A comparative study of red maple trees at the Harvard Forest and at Bartlett Experimental Forest in New Hampshire sheds new light on how trees allocate carbon throughout their life cycle--including just after they have been cut. The researchers used radiocarbon dating to "age" the carbon in new sprouts that emerge from stumps when trees are harvested.